


The Lights Behind You

by tinywoodenrobot



Series: The Lights Behind You [1]
Category: Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun | My Little Monster
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Angst, F/M, Love Triangles, Mutual Pining, Post-Canon, Rare Fandoms, Rare Pairings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:02:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28042086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinywoodenrobot/pseuds/tinywoodenrobot
Summary: "Ooshima-san, I like you. I have always been in love with you. In order to convey my thoughts of you, my gratefulness at your presence beside me, and the time we slowly spent together... my words and hand will tell you these feelings directly. Until it is conveyed, no matter how many times..."Author's Note: This story is on hiatus until March 2021. Thanks for being patient with me!
Relationships: Mizutani Takaya/Ooshima Chizuru, Mizutani Takaya/Original Female Character
Series: The Lights Behind You [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2049996
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6





	1. Chapter 1

“So?” Shizuku starts. “How does it feel to be a university graduate and a working man?”

Takaya shrugs. “I don’t think it’s actually started to sink in yet, honestly.”

His older sister laughs. “Give it some time, it will.” She pauses for a moment. “I had coffee with Ooshima the other day,” she starts casually. “She asked about you.”

One look at Shizuku’s face, and Takaya knows that she knows everything. “She told you,” he surmises, crestfallen. He braces himself for the lecture he knows is coming. 

“She did,” his sister confirms. “At first I was quite surprised, seeing as you never spoke a word about it to me. But when I think back on it,” she continues, “I realize that somehow, I knew all along.”

“All right,” he sighs. “I’m ready for my lecture. Let’s hear it.”

When no such lecture comes, he looks up. Shizuku looks genuinely surprised. “Why would I lecture you?”

“Because of the age gap,” he suggested. “Because she’s your friend. Because she used to be my sensei. I could probably list a dozen more reasons.”

“But none of those matter anymore, do they?” Shizuku rebuts. “You haven’t been her student in a very long time. A five year age gap when you’re twenty-two and twenty-seven isn’t nearly as wide as a five year age gap when you’re seventeen and twenty-two. And it’s true that Ooshima is my friend, but that doesn’t give me the right to dictate who she can go out with. Besides,” Shizuku adds nonchalantly, lifting one shoulder in a lopsided shrug, “she asked me to tell you to call her.”

*******

He surprises himself by not calling her right away. In his dreams, he’s waited for this moment: over and over again he’s replayed it in his mind, wondering what it would be like, rehearsing what he would say. 

Now, in the privacy of his flat, he stares at the name in his contacts, his thumb ghosting over it, his brain memorizing the sequence of numbers that will summon the woman he’s been in love with for over half of his life. 

He wonders if she’s expecting him to call; he wonders if she’s hoping he will. 

“Oh, what the hell,” he mumbles to himself. “If she told Shizuku to ask you to call her, she wants you to call her.” Without allowing time to talk himself out of it, he presses down on the number, putting the phone up to his ear to listen to it ring. 

One ring.

Two rings.

Two and a half--

“You’ve reached Ooshima Chizuru’s cell phone.” It’s her voice, tinny and cheerful, and the corners of Takaya’s mouth twitch up in an involuntary smile. “I’m sorry I’m unable to take your call right now… but if you leave your name, number, and a brief message, I’ll get back to you as quickly as I can. Have a great day!” 

He’s so busy losing himself in her voice that he almost misses the beep. A few seconds pass, and he curses himself for not preparing better in the event of having to leave a message. “Hi, Ooshima-san,” he starts, tripping over his words a bit. He inhales, then exhales, feeling a little calmer for it. “It’s Takaya. I was having lunch with Shizuku a couple of days ago and she passed your number on to me. I hope you don’t mind me calling.” _Of course she wouldn’t mind, you idiot,_ he reminds himself. _She_ **_asked_ ** _you to._ “I know you’re busy, so don’t feel obligated to call back. I just wanted to say hi, maybe catch up over a drink or something.” 

Before he can blunder further, he hits the end button. “Dumbest message I’ve ever left,” he sighs. 

*******

He doesn’t realize until much later that he’s missed a call; the staff meeting he’s in takes a lot longer to wrap up than usual, and by the time they’ve ended it, Takaya is almost faint with hunger. “Going out for lunch,” he says to the receptionist on his way out. “Would you mind forwarding my calls to voicemail?” 

“Of course,” the receptionist tells him with a smile. “Enjoy your lunch.”

Flipping his phone on, he checks the notifications, noticing there’s a voicemail. “Eh?” His eyes widen when he realizes who the missed call is from. 

_“Takaya-kun!”_ Something about the way she says his name makes him smile. _“It was so good to hear from you. Congratulations on graduating from university and landing a spectacular job - Mitty told me all about it. I’d love to get together and catch up over drinks if you have some time. I’m sorry I missed your call - things have been insanely busy lately but they’re starting to slow down. I’m sure you’re at work right now, so I’ll try you again later if I don’t hear from you. Bye-bye!”_

He checks the time on the missed message. Three and a half hours ago. He isn’t sure what her schedule is like, so he decides to shoot her a text. 

**_Got your voicemail._ **

**_Sorry I missed you; we were in_ **

**_a staff meeting._ **

He’s standing in line waiting for his food when his phone buzzes in his pocket. 

**_No worries. :)_ **

**_So how about a drink?_ **

**_Are you free tonight?_ **

Takaya smiles. For all the time he’s spent chasing after Chizuru, trying to catch up with her, he never even considered that she would be the one to invite him out first. _Get a grip,_ he scolds himself. _This doesn’t mean anything. It just means she wants to catch up. You haven’t seen each other in a long time, that’s all. He taps out a response._

**_Yeah, I am free tonight._ **

**_What time would you like to meet?_ **

**_And where?_ **

The response is immediate, and he thinks this probably means she’s not busy at the moment. He kicks himself for not just deciding to call her. 

**_Anytime after 6:30 works for me._ **

**_Shizuku said you work near Shinjuku._ **

**_Do you want to meet there and grab_ **

**_a bite?_ **

**_Sounds good to me._ **

**_I’ll let you pick the place._ **

**_See you then!_ **

  
  
  


*******

She sees him first - at his height, he isn’t hard to spot. 

“Takaya-kun,” she calls out to him, waving a hand. He turns in her direction, and Chizuru can’t stop her sharp intake of breath. Takaya has always been good-looking, but the few years since she’s seen him last have been kind to him. He’s a man now, and while he still has the fair hair and serious eyes that Chizuru remembers, there is something much more… _worldly,_ about him now. 

She finds it attractive. 

“Hey,” he says with a smile, once he’s close enough to say it without shouting. Even with her heels on, she’s looking up at him, a whole head taller than her, and she wonders not for the first time, when this transformation took place. She reaches up, wrapping her arms around his neck in a hug. She feels him tense briefly, but then he hugs her back, keeping his arms at a respectful level on her waist. “It’s good to see you,” he murmurs, his chin resting just on top of her head. 

“You too,” she says, when they pull away from each other. “Look at you. You’re so tall! When did you shoot up like this?”

He shrugs, grinning at her good-naturedly. “Happened while you weren’t looking.”

“Well then,” she laughs, “I guess I’ll need to keep a closer eye on you, hm?”

He shoots her a look that makes her feel strangely flustered. “I guess you will,” is his response, and something about the way he says it makes her stomach flip-flop. 

_What is this?_ She wonders. Shaking her head, she flashes him a smile. “I’ve got the perfect place,” she tells him. “I tried this restaurant a while ago, and I’ve been dying to come back. I hope you like it,” she adds, linking her arm through his and leading him towards the place in question. 

“I’m sure I will,” he answers. “Even if it sucks, I’m happy, because I’m with you.” 

“Still as honest as ever, I see.” She flushes. “It always did catch me off-guard.” 

He doesn’t answer, opting instead to offer her a grin as he lets her lead the way.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It has always been this way, Ooshima knows - he looks at her with an intensity that catches her off-guard every single time, makes it hard for her to concentrate on anything but the way those dark, serious brown eyes are studying her. "Takaya-kun, I..." She trails off, taking a deep breath. "I think maybe you've got this image of me in your head that isn't necessarily aligned with what I'm really like."

“So,” Ooshima starts, once they’ve placed their orders for food and their drinks have been brought to the table. “How’s post-university life treating you?”

Takaya smiles as he takes a sip of his beer. “Shizuku asked me something similar,” he offers. “I told her the change hasn’t quite sunk in yet.”

“Give it time,” Ooshima replies with a smile.

“She said that too,” he chuckles. 

She’s still smiling over the rim of her wine glass. “Do you think you’ll like your company?” She asks, after taking a sip and setting the glass back down. 

“Mm,” he answers in the affirmative. “At first, it surprised me how many people my age work there,” he explains. “But it made sense when I realized the owner is only in his thirties. I guess his whole ideal is to catch tech majors fresh out of university. He’s cool,” Takaya goes on. “Not at all the kind of guy you’d imagine to be running his own company at his age, but it’s clear he really knows what he’s doing.” 

Ooshima nods. “It’s a relatively small company, right?”

He nods. “Less than fifty people. I got really lucky.”

“I’m sure it had more to do with skill than luck,” Ooshima smiles. 

The compliment makes him flush. “You’re still kind,” he murmurs. 

“Oh, I was hoping you’d noticed I’ve gotten a bit tougher,” she teases.

He inclines his head to the side, silently studying her with those serious brown eyes of his. “Well, maybe,” he starts slowly. “You’re perfect anyway.”

This time, it’s Ooshima’s face that flushes. “Takaya-kun,” she starts, and he wonders why she sounds unhappy. 

“Yes?” He leans forward, giving her his undivided attention. 

It flusters her a bit, the way his gaze is so intense. It has always been this way, Ooshima knows - he looks at her with an intensity that catches her off-guard every single time, makes it hard for her to concentrate on anything but the way those dark, serious brown eyes are studying her. “Takaya-kun, I…” She trails off, taking a deep breath. “I think maybe you’ve got this image of me in your head that isn’t necessarily aligned with what I’m really like.”

His brows furrow in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“I’m not perfect,” Ooshima explains. “I never have been. When you say things like that, it makes me think you don’t really see me as me. That maybe you’ve idealized me in your head after all these years. That maybe if you knew the real me, you wouldn’t be so…” She trails off again, shrugging her shoulders in a loss for words. 

Takaya takes another sip of his beer, contemplating what she’s said. “Are you saying what I know of you - what you’ve shown me all these years - isn’t the real you?”

“Well,” she says, trying to choose her words carefully, “it isn’t the me you’d know if you and I were in a relationship. I’m sure my ex-boyfriend would be able to make a firm rebuttal for all your claims of me being perfect,” she adds with a laugh. 

“What I know about you,” he starts, “is that you’re kind and gentle, and you care a lot about your friends. You work hard, you’re incredibly intelligent, and you don’t let the fear of failure keep you from trying new things. You suck at cooking, you’re clumsy, and sometimes you get so caught up in your own thoughts that you sort of withdraw from the rest of the world. When someone gives you a gift, you cherish it with your whole heart. And when you give a gift, you put so much thought and personal effort into it because it’s literally an extension of your love for that person. You love coriander but you hate persimmon, and while house cats make your skin crawl, you would be perfectly content to own a baby tiger.” He raises his eyebrows. “Should I keep going, or do you want me to stop?”

Stunned, she gapes at him.

“You know, Ooshima-san… you don’t spend twelve years in love with a woman without getting to know her pretty well.” 

He’s looking at her again, in that straightforward, unabashed way, and Chizuru wonders how many hearts he broke in university with the power of that gaze. She lifts her wine glass to her lips, taking a gulp of the dark liquid, and his eyes follow her every move. “You,” she starts, setting her glass back down, “are turning out to be a very dangerous young man.”

Takaya leans forward. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

“The jury is still out,” she murmurs, trying - and failing - to bite back a smile. 

The pair fall silent as their server returns, setting their plates in front of them and inquiring if they need anything else. Once she’s been sent away with polite reassurances that they don’t require anything else at the moment, Takaya turns back toward Chizuru. 

“So,” he starts casually, his eyes on his plate and his words measured. “Can I consider this our first date?” 

“No,” Chizuru replies, her eyes sparkling teasingly. “We’re just catching up as old friends tonight.”

Takaya nods, undeterred. “Fair enough.”

They drift into comfortable conversation again, filling each other in on the years that they have missed while they were apart from each other. Chizuru is pleasantly surprised to learn that Takaya has taken up archery as a hobby, and intrigued, she asks him a host of questions about it. 

“It shouldn’t surprise me,” she laughs lightly. “I bet you’re awfully good at it.”

“I do all right, I guess,” he shrugs. “I don’t get to do it as much as I used to, now that I’m working, but I still try to go down once a week and get a few practice rounds in.” 

She watches him talk about the hobby that he loves, and she marvels once more at how very  _ grown up _ Takaya looks.  _ He’s not a kid anymore… he’s a man. I wonder if he’s known many women. _ The thought hits Chizuru somewhat suddenly, and she’s powerless to stop the blood from rushing to her cheeks as her face flushes. 

“Ooshima-san?” Takaya is calling her name. “Are you alright? You look a little flushed. Is it the wine?”

“Yes,” she lies, flashing him a sheepish grin. “It’s alright, I’m just feeling a little warm. Red wine always has that effect on me.”  _ So do young, handsome men who are clearly in love with me. _ She shoos the thought away with a mental swat. 

Before she can say another word, Takaya has called for the check. He pulls out his wallet, amid protests from Chizuru, and takes care of the entire bill. 

“You didn’t have to do that,” she scolds him lightly. “I was willing to pay for my share.”

He waves a hand. “I know you said this wasn’t a date,” he chuckles, “but no way was I going to let you pay.” 

“Thank you, Takaya-kun---”   
  


“Would you… just call me Takaya?” He interrupts her softly. “I like it better that way.”

She looks at him in surprise. “Well… alright,” she starts slowly. “But if that’s how it is, then you should call me Chizuru.” 

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” she smiles. “When you call me Ooshima-san, it makes me feel like I’m your sensei again.” She laughs. “It makes me feel old.”

“Chizuru,” he says quietly, testing the name on his tongue. “Chizuru.”

She wonders how it can be, that her name in his mouth feels like a caress up her spine. She closes her eyes briefly, suppressing a shiver that has nothing to do with the temperature in the restaurant. 

“Here,” Takaya says, standing and offering her his hand. “Let me call you a taxi, please?”

Any other day, she might object. But she’s tired, and the wine, while not as powerful as she’s led him to believe, is definitely starting to have an effect on her. More potent, she thinks, is the effect of the fair-haired young man smiling down at her now. “I’d like that,” she tells him softly. “Thank you.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's no one around to hear her sharp intake of breath, but she feels her cheeks flush anyway. Takaya is so open, so honest, so utterly _blunt_ , that it never fails to catch her off-guard and make her feel flustered. _Even as a teenager,_ she remembers, _he had that effect on me._

She has been staring at the ceiling for hours now. 

The wine she had at dinner has long since worn off. Briefly, Chizuru considers opening a bottle from her wine rack. She thinks better of it when she remembers that tonight is a weeknight, and she will have to get up and go to work tomorrow regardless of how much wine she’s had tonight.

So she lies on her bed, restless and wide awake, her mind still on dinner. 

***

_ “It was nice getting to catch up with you.” She hopes he can hear the sincerity in her voice; hopes that she doesn’t just sound like she’s throwing words she rehearsed at him.  _

_ “I enjoyed it, too,” he says, looking down at her, and for the umpteenth time that night, she wonders when the serious, reserved little boy who used to look so far up at her got to be so tall. “We should do it again sometime.”  _

_ Her taxi pulls up then, and Takaya steps forward to open the door for her. “Are we going to share?” Chizuru asks, hesitating after getting in.  _

_ “Nah,” he says, flashing her a smile. “I think I need the fresh air and a walk to the station.”  _

_ She looks at him questioningly.  _

_ “Let me know when you get home safely,” is all he’ll say before he closes the door gently. _

*******

The clock on the nightstand reads 2:16 am. She’s not even remotely sleepy; her thoughts are fuzzy and full of conflicting feelings about Takaya and everything that transpired at dinner. She’s contemplating taking a sleeping pill when she hears her phone buzz on the nightstand. 

Curious, she rolls over, grabbing the device and bringing it with her into bed. 

**_Are you awake?_ **

“Straightforward and to the point as always,” she chuckles. She sits up, bracing her back against her headboard so she can type a proper response.

**_Isn’t it a bit rude to send texts_ **

**_in the middle of the night?_ **

**_I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be_ **

**_rude. And I didn’t mean to wake_ **

**_you._ **

**_I was partially hoping you wouldn’t_ **

**_see this until morning._ **

**_Well… I’ve seen it now. :p_ **

She waits for a response. The three dots let her know that one is coming, and she wonders what it will be. 

**_I can’t stop thinking about you._ **

There’s no one around to hear her sharp intake of breath, but she feels her cheeks flush anyway. Takaya is so open, so honest, so utterly  _ blunt, _ that it never fails to catch her off-guard and make her feel flustered.  _ Even as a teenager, _ she remembers,  _ he had that effect on me _ . 

**_I probably shouldn’t admit this,_ **

**_but I’ve been thinking about you, too._ **

Two seconds later, her phone begins to ring. 

“Takaya?”

“I’m sorry,” he starts, and Chizuru notes with mild surprise that he does sound genuinely apologetic. “I know it’s late, and I know this is highly inappropriate and probably really troublesome for you.”

“If it were troublesome, I would have ignored your text message,” she points out with a chuckle.

“Chizuru…” He breathes her name on a sigh, and it makes something in her heart constrict. “You said to me once that even if you told me your feelings, you’d never be able to see me as anything but a little boy.” He pauses, and she can feel his hesitation through the phone line. “Did you really mean that? Do you really not see me as anything other than Shizuku’s little brother and your student?”

“Takaya…” She trails off, unsure what to say. 

“If you did mean it, and it’s true, I’ll leave you alone,” he says quietly. “I won’t call you, I won’t bother you, and I won’t hope for anything.” He pauses. “But if there’s even the slightest chance you could feel anything for me other than that, will you be honest with me and tell me so?”

It’s a loaded question, and for the second time that night, Chizuru considers opening a bottle of wine. “I… don’t know,” she answers. She doesn’t know how honest the statement is, but she feels a twinge of regret at the ambiguity. “Takaya, seeing you tonight was nice. And I would be lying to you if I said that I didn’t enjoy the attention you gave me as the man you’ve become.” She sighs. “But if you’re asking me to make this into something else, if you’re asking me about a future together… well, I can’t really give you an answer to that. At least, not yet.” 

She can almost hear his frustration through the phone, and it makes her gut twist with another pang of guilt. “I’m not saying never,” she adds, trying to make her voice level. 

He’s silent for a long time, and Chizuru wonders what’s going on in his head. When he finally speaks again, there is a quiet resignation in his voice. 

“If waiting is what you want me to do, I’ll do it,” he says softly. “I’ve been doing it, and will do it for as long as you want me to.”

Chizuru sighs again. “Takaya, you shouldn’t say that.”

“Why not? It’s the truth.”

“I know you mean what you say. But I’m not asking you to wait for me, because I don’t know how long the wait will be.”

He chuckles. “What could be longer than twelve years?”

She doesn’t know what to say to that. 

“Look, I know it must sound like I’m being incredibly pushy,” he starts, his tone serious once more. “And for that, I’m sorry. I never want to do anything to make you feel uncomfortable. But,” he continues, “please understand how I feel for just a moment. These feelings I have for you - these feelings I’ve always had - have only intensified with time. It feels like I’ve been waiting forever to catch up to you, and you can’t imagine how happy I was when Shizuku told me that you wanted me to call you.” He pauses, taking a deep breath. “After all these years of chasing you and feeling like I would never catch up, well… I just wanted the chance to properly court you.”

His words leave her brain spinning in ten different directions, and it takes her a moment to process, to catch up. “Will you… give me some time to think about it?” She finally offers. With the way her head is swimming, it’s the best she can do at the moment. 

“I can do that,” Takaya answers. 

She can hear the slight disappointment in his voice, but it’s laced with something that sounds a little like hope, and that twinge of guilt twists in her stomach again. “Thank you,” she offers, as sincerely as she can. “Now you should probably get some sleep. We both should.”

They bid each other goodnight, and Chizuru hangs up the phone, plugging it back into the charger on her nightstand. She knows, however, that it will be a long time before she can find the mental peace to sleep.

*******

Long after the call has ended, Takaya lies awake, staring at the ceiling of his apartment. 

_ Will you give me some time to think about it? _

He tries not to let the uncertainty of the question haunt him; on some level, he knows that Chizuru still doesn’t believe that his feelings for her are anything more than a leftover crush from his adolescent years. 

But if she isn’t ready for him to spend time proving to her that his feelings are real, there isn’t anything he can do about it. 

He sighs, shifting in his bed to glance at the clock on his nightstand. Nigh on 4 am, and he’s not even remotely sleepy. His brain is too wired; his thoughts racing at a mile a minute and not giving him any peace. Sleep is not in his future this night, he knows, resigning himself to a full workday of exhaustion ahead. 

Sighing again, he swings his feet over the edge of the bed. 

_ I may as well go work out. _


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One-hundred and seventeen days, and not a word from Chizuru. Takaya thinks it's probably all the answer he needs - the fact that she has said nothing to him since that night. 
> 
> _So do I just give up and move on?_

“Mizutani-san!”

His name being called stops him in his tracks, and he turns at the sound of the voice. “Ah, Ono-san,” he smiles, addressing the young woman who called out to him. 

“Sorry to shout that way,” she apologizes, bowing slightly. “You walk fast.”

“Oh, it’s only because my legs are long,” he supplies with a laugh. “My strides are wider than the average person’s.”

She smiles at him.  _ He’s not at all what I imagined him to be, _ she thinks to herself.  _ Everybody said he was serious and kind of boring. _ “Well, I’m glad I caught you anyway.” There’s a dusting of pink on the apples of her cheeks, she’s sure, and she hopes he passes it off as the byproduct of her physical exertion and not the manifestation of her proximity to him. “Some of us are going out for a drink after work tonight,” she goes on, her smile a bit shy. “I wanted to know if you’d like to come.”

Takaya hesitates for just a split second, considering the invitation. He isn’t blind; he’s seen the way she looks at him in staff meetings, and he isn’t oblivious to the way her eyes go a little soft around the edges whenever she speaks to him. 

He also knows that it has been one-hundred and seventeen days since his dinner with Ooshima; one-hundred and seventeen days since that late-night phone conversation where she asked him for time to think about the possibility of them landing squarely in the relationship that he has hoped for for so long. 

One-hundred and seventeen days, and not a word from Chizuru. Takaya thinks it’s probably all the answer he needs - the fact that she has said nothing to him since that night. 

_ So do I just give up and move on? _

It’s the question he has asked himself several times a day in that time since she promised him she would think about it. Each time, he comes up empty. Even putting it in perspective - the fact that he has waited twelve years and so four months should be nothing in comparison - does little to allay his fears that Chizuru has decided not to be a part of his life at all. 

Takaya won’t be the one to call; he decided that early on. In agreeing to wait for her to think about what she wanted, he has put the ball firmly in Chizuru’s court, and that is where he intends to leave it. 

“Mizutani-san?” The young lady in front of him is looking at him questioningly, and with a start, Takaya realizes that she’s still waiting for his answer. 

“Sorry,” he offers sincerely. “I guess I spaced out for a bit there.” He flashes her a smile, and she mirrors it, relieved at having his attention on her once more. “Drinks after work sound great. Count me in.”

The relief on her face is almost palpable. “Oh, I’m so glad!” She graces him with another smile. “We’ll all meet in front of reception at 6:30, if you want to head down together with us,” she tells him. 

“Yeah, I’ll do that.” 

*******

Ono-san reminds him a lot of Natsume. 

It isn’t necessarily a bad thing, he muses silently, as he watches her interact with their other coworkers. Her enthusiasm is much more toned-down than Shizuku’s best friend, even under the influence of two cocktails. She’s pleasant to be around, and though Takaya suspects she tends to dumb herself down a bit, it’s obvious she’s intelligent and very witty. 

Takaya has never been overly fond of large crowds, and even though their group is just below a dozen, he spends most of his time chatting with Ono-san - who has, he notes, conveniently seated herself next to him in the booth they share. He doesn’t mind; she’s an interesting young lady, and he can’t say that he doesn’t enjoy her company. 

“People used to tell me that you were boring and too serious,” she confides in him, leaning close to be heard over the din of the restaurant. “I was terrified to speak to you when I first met you.”

Her lips are looser than they might be otherwise, thanks to the two cocktails she’s had, but Takaya isn’t far behind her and he finds he’s also more talkative than he might otherwise be. “You don’t seem to have any trouble speaking to me now,” he teases her. “What changed?”

“You’re  _ nice,” _ she answers simply, never breaking eye contact with him over the rim of her glass as she takes a sip of her drink. “God, you’re always so nice to me,” she adds, almost as an afterthought, almost as though she’s talking to herself. 

“It doesn’t cost anything to be nice,” he shrugs, still smiling at her teasingly.

She leans closer to him. “But sometimes you seem sad,” she remarks. “Are you sad, Mizutani-san?”

The question catches him completely off-guard, and it is asked with such candor that the words are spilling out of him before he’s had a chance to filter them. “You’d be sad too if the woman you’ve loved for most of your life wouldn’t even look twice at you.”

She seems to be processing his words. “Well, I’m not into women, and I haven’t loved anybody for most of my life,” she starts thoughtfully, “but I  _ do _ know what it’s like when the object of your affections doesn’t feel the way you do about them.” She looks up at him, her hazel eyes bright and sparkling. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Maybe.” He hesitates, looking around the table at their coworkers in various stages of inebriation. “But not here,” he laughs. “This place is loud and it’s starting to give me a headache.”

“I don’t live far,” she tells him. There’s nothing suggestive in her tone, but her words put him on guard all the same. He must be conveying something in his facial expression, though, because she holds up her hands. “I’m sorry,” she says, eyes wide. “I only realized after I’d said it how I must sound to you. I just meant if you wanted someplace quiet to talk, I could fix you a cup of tea and maybe a bite to eat.”

“It sounds much more innocent that way,” he admits with a chuckle. “And when you put it in those words, it’s a little easier to accept the offer without feeling like a creep.”

He doesn’t know what she finds so funny in what he’s said, but she’s giggling just the same anyway as they slip away from the table. 

*******

“You have a nice place,” Takaya remarks, looking around the apartment. 

“Thank you,” she tells him, setting the tray of food and tea on the table in front of him. “I’ve been here for a while now. I lucked out and moved in right at the end of renovations. The cost of living in this area goes up steadily every year, but those of us who’ve been in this building from the beginning are sort of grandfathered in with the cost of our monthly rent. It’s a nice loyalty perk.”

“I can imagine,” he murmurs. “This looks fantastic,” he adds, motioning to the tray in front of him. “How you can whip something like this up in just a matter of minutes is beyond me.” 

She flushes at the compliment. “Mizutani-san---”

“Ah, the honorifics,” he interrupts with a groan. 

Quizzically, she looks at him. “Pardon?”

“Mizutani-san is my father,” Takaya mumbles. “I don’t mind it when we’re at work because I know it’s proper workplace etiquette, but please, when we’re not at the office, feel free to use my given name.”

“Oh,” she exclaims softly in surprise. “Takaya-kun?”

“Much better,” he laughs. 

“Then I’ll be Hana,” she offers in return. “Whether it’s -chan or -san, I’ll leave up to you.” She looks at him expectantly.

“Would it be impudent of me to make it -chan?” 

“Not at all,” she smiles. “It’s why I gave you the option. Now,” she adds, pouring tea into two mugs, “are you ready to talk?”

**Author's Note:**

> So Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun is a manga that I come back to again and again. Not just for the main story centered around Haru and Mitty, but for the ensemble of characters that make up the group of friends in their world. 
> 
> The one story that I was always wanting more of was the relationship between Mitty's younger brother Takaya and his crush, Ooshima Chizuru. The manga ends with Takaya asking Ooshima to wait for him to catch up to her so he can properly court her. It's also implied that Chizuru has some feelings for him as well, but it's never explored. Here's the story where I indulge my ideas of what happened after the curtain closed on these two and where they ended up a few years later. I hope you enjoy it!


End file.
